


Let's Get Comfortable

by nadagio



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Awkward Sex, Canon Universe, Developing Relationship, Experienced Keith (Voltron), Horrible pet names, Humor, M/M, Smut, Takes place whenever, Virgin Lance (Voltron), arguing/serious talk in ch3, but mostly banter, catching feelings, possible abuse of italics and commas, sex before dating, talking about masturbation, the other characters are there too but don't do much
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-21
Updated: 2017-04-23
Packaged: 2018-10-22 03:15:47
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 12,459
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10688652
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nadagio/pseuds/nadagio
Summary: “No- just… no. That was not you telling me anything,” Lance shrieks, jumping to his feet and pacing in front of the couch. “That was you trying to- trying to fucking s-seduce me!” He stops pacing and points an accusing finger in Keith’s face.“Oh? Did it work?” Keith asks, mock-curious.“YES!” Lance shouts, and then freezes as if shocked by his own admission. Keith is equally shocked. “I mean- n-NO. Duh.” Lance crosses his arms and looks away, and now he’s obviously lying.---Keith and Lance have sex. Lance freaks out a bit, and later they have more sex. The team finds out, Lance gets angry, and then they have sex. You noticing a pattern? Oh. Also, they catch feelings.





	1. Chapter 1

“You know what I miss from Earth?”

Keith knows for a fact there’s a lot that Lance misses from Earth. Lance is homesick and misses his family and is suffering from serious culture shock. He misses everything about Earth. But that’s obviously not what Lance is talking about. He has something specific in mind.

Keith sighs. He’s really not into guessing games.

“I don’t know. Music? Potato chips?”

“Well, yeah but – No. I mean lube, Keith. I miss lube.” Lance says, and Keith gives him a long glance using his _I’m seriously judging you right now_ face. From beside him where he’s sprawled across the couch, Lance reaches over with one foot to nudge Keith in the calf. “Come on, you know what I’m talking about, man.”

Keith resolutely turns back to the tablet-like device in his hand.

“I know what you’re talking about,” he says. “I’m wondering why you felt the need to overshare and tell me about it.”

“Because I’m _suffering_!” Lance flings an arm across his face, dramatic as ever. “Sometimes I just need a long and hard stroke, or a little fingering. You know, spice things up. But all I’ve got is some moisturizer and dude, I need that for my _face_ so I can’t be wasting it jacking off!”

“Sounds awful,” Keith mutters, attempting to focus on learning the Galran language and not his teammate’s masturbatory habits.

“ _So_ awful! I just don’t understand it,” Lance sighs heavily. “Most of the aliens we’ve met have been humanoid and had gender. They probably have sex to make babies. How can there be no lube in space!?”

“There is lube in space,” Keith informs him, the “ _you idiot_ ” implied. Lance gasps and sits upright, leaning in _way_ too close.

“WHAT!? There is? Keith! Have you been holding out on me with the space lube!?”

“I don’t see how it’s my fault you didn’t know that,” Keith frowns, trying to subtly lean away from the overexcited boy.

“But I looked! All over my room and in the bathroom. Where is it? You’ve gotta tell me, dude! Tell meeee!”

At this point, Lance’s nose is practically touching Keith’s cheek and he has the most ridiculous bug-eyed expression on his face. Keith gives up on subtlety and scoots further down the couch to get some breathing room.

“It’s in the med bay. The drawer that’s labeled ‘quizark.’ I mean, that’s not its only purpose but it has the right consistency and is safe to use,” Keith says.

“SweeEET! ...Wait. How do you even _know_ that?”

“Uh… I talked to Coran?”

Lance bursts out laughing. Keith frowns. What’s so funny about talking to Coran?

“Oh. My.” Lance chuckles breathlessly. “GOD. Imagining that conversation right now… this is great. Are you saying you got so desperate for lube you went and asked _Coran_ for some?”

Keith sets down the tablet – resigned to getting nothing done right now – and crosses his arms defensively. “Why is that weird? You were literally just whining about how much you need some to jerk it.”

Lance continues to giggle while clutching at his stomach.

“It’s just- out of everyone, thinking that _you_ \- !” Lance gestures with one hand to... _all_ of Keith.

“What is that supposed to mean?” Keith’s glare is deadly.

“I mean, I know everybody does it,” Lance tries to explain. “But like, _you_ \- !” He appears to struggle for words, a rare miracle. “What do you even think about when you do it? Fist fights? Are you into some BDSM shit? Or maybe something-” He giggles. “S-something with _knives_.”

His attitude is seriously pissing Keith off. What’s so funny about Keith masturbating? Does Lance think he can’t enjoy touching himself? Can’t enjoy thinking about sex? His laughter is like a direct challenge to Keith as a sexual being and makes him feel likes he’s got something to prove.

“Why so interested in my sexual fantasies, Lance?” Keith says, low and smooth. He uncrosses his arms to place one hand on the couch and lean in to invade _Lance’s_ personal space a bit.

The other boy’s smile freezes on his face. Dense as he can be, even Lance recognizes the abrupt change in mood. He stutters, “U-um.”

“Do you want to hear about them?” Keith slides in closer. Slowly. Carefully.

“Um- I don’t- You really don’t - ” Lance’s words come out a few octaves higher than normal.

“I can tell you what I think about,” Keith says, raising an arm to place it behind Lance on top of the couch, pressing their thighs together. “When I touch myself.”

Lance is utterly mute, and it is glorious.

“I think about...” Keith says, brings his face in close, raises one hand. “A _man_ _._ ” He trails one finger along the sharp edge of Lance’s jaw. Lance swallows. “Because I’m gay. Did you know?”

“Um.”

“What he looks like varies. But he’s always - “ Keith shifts to swing a leg over and straddle Lance’s lap. “ _Underneath me_. I like to be in control.” He grips the other boy’s hair to give it a gentle tug. Lance lifts his chin and Keith swoops in to bring his lips close to one ear.

“Do you want to know more?” Keith whispers against his skin, and Lance shudders.

“Yes,” Lance rasps quietly, eyes wide. Keith smirks and it’s a mean, sadistic thing.

He promptly climbs off of Lance’s lap and falls back on the couch, spreading his limbs with a satisfied grin.

“I don’t know...” he says. “You might laugh at me.”

Keith basks in the outraged expression on Lance’s face.

“What - “ Lance clears his throat when his voice cracks. “What the quiznacking fuck was _that_!?”

“You wanted to know what I think about when I masturbate,” Keith says with poorly hidden amusement.

“No- just… _no_. That was not you _telling_ me anything,” Lance shrieks, jumping to his feet and pacing in front of the couch. “That was you trying to- trying to fucking s-seduce me!” He stops pacing and points an accusing finger in Keith’s face.

“Oh? Did it work?” Keith asks, mock-curious.

“YES!” Lance shouts, and then freezes as if shocked by his own admission. Keith is equally shocked. “I mean- n-NO. Duh.” Lance crosses his arms and looks away, and now he’s obviously lying.

For several quiet moments they come to terms with what just happened. Did Keith really just sit in Lance’s _lap_ and caress his face? Pull his hair and whisper suggestively in his ear? Oh god. He did. Why did he do that!? But more importantly…

“You want to have sex with me?” Keith asks, even more surprised by Lance’s reaction than he is by is own behavior.

Lance sputters and shakes his head vigorously. “NO!” He looks around the room as if someone else might have just magically appeared to listen in on their embarrassing conversation. Which doesn’t seem entirely impossible, these days. And the mice are always around somewhere acting as Allura’s spies, so really it’s something to worry about. “Um...” Lance turns back to Keith with narrow eyes. “...Was that an offer?”

Now it’s Keith’s turn to sputter. “Uh.” Shit. Does he want to have sex with Lance? Well... why not? “Yeah. Sure.”

They stare at each other for a minute, eyes wide.

“Yeah. Sure,” Lance echoes, hoarse.

They continue to stare at each other.

“...Now?” Keith asks. Lance frowns and crosses his arms.

“Well I’m kind of horny now and it’s your fault!” he accuses.

Keith rolls his eyes and stands, abandoning the tablet on the couch and walking to the door. He says to Lance, “Come on then.”

“Where are we going?”

“My room,” Keith explains. Duh. “Maybe _you_ have an exhibitionist kink, but I don’t want to have sex in a common area where anyone can walk in on us.”

“Uh, right. Yeah, good idea.” Lance sounds uncomfortable and Keith does him the courtesy of not responding with an insult. They walk across the castle in silence, Keith slightly in the lead even if they both know where they’re going.

By the time they reach Keith’s door, Lance looks ready to jump out of his skin.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” Keith asks, except Lance seems to take that as some kind of challenge because he straightens with an arrogant smirk.

“Hah, _yeah_ ,” he says. “Are you?”

Instead of answering, Keith opens his door and gestures for Lance to enter. Keith follows behind and then they’re standing in another awkward silence. This time in a much smaller and more private room.

“So… you have some of that space lube, right?” Lance asks, looking around as if searching for it. As if Keith would leave it just lying around.

“Yeah. There’s a panel in the wall by the bed,” he says, and Lance nods.

“Yup. Right, I know the one.”

Silence. Keith huffs and takes off his jacket to hang it on the wall.

“Maybe we should start by taking off our clothes,” he suggests, and Lance legitimately _squeaks_.

“Um! Isn’t that moving a little fast?” Lance protests. “Like, maybe we could work up to the nudity thing?”

“Sure, I don’t care,” Keith says. “But we need to do _something_ because things aren’t gonna move at all if we just stand here.”

“Right. Sure. Yeah, moving along,” Lance says, taking a few slow steps toward him. Keith raises his eyebrows, unimpressed. “Just gonna… _move_ now.”

Keith closes the gap until they’re standing chest to chest. He reaches up to place his hands on Lance’s neck, pulling him forward and down slightly until their lips are only inches apart.

“Kissing sound good?” he asks. Lance flails his arms a bit until his hands settle tentatively on Keith’s hips.

“Kissing sounds _great_ ,” Lance breathes, and Keith brings their mouths together.

It isn’t the _worst_ first kiss ever, but both are a little hesitant, a little self-conscious. They barely move at first, just pressing dry lips to dry lips… Until their mouths open just a little bit and Lance reaches out with the tip of his tongue to touch Keith’s upper lip, and now Keith is feeling very warm and needs _more_ and loses all inhibitions.

Keith grips Lance’s hair and tilts their heads at a greater angle, slipping his tongue along the seam of Lance’s lips until they’re wet with saliva, enjoying the slick friction of their flesh for a while and then sucking his bottom lip into his mouth. Keith bites down gently and pulls away with a playful tug. He looks at Lance’s flushed face and smirks.

“Do you like that?” he asks, and it’s mostly rhetorical. It’s clear from his dazed expression that Lance does indeed _like that_. But the other boy lives to be an irritating ass and so he leans back with a grimace.

“Eh, wasn’t awful,” Lance says. “I’ve had better.” Whatever, Lance.

Keith lowers his hands to push on Lance’s chest until he stumbles backward, feels the back of his legs collide with the bed, and collapses with a thud to sit on its mattress. Keith sits on his lap, enjoying the look of surprise on Lance’s face as Keith lifts his chin.

“Then I guess we’d better try again,” Keith says, and leans in for another kiss. And another. And more after that, while Lance’s hands creep under his shirt to caress the skin of his lower back.

Keith pulls away to tug off his belt and shirt and toss them to the floor. Lance stares at his bare chest with shock.

“So… we’re, um. Doing the naked thing, then? Taking off our clothes. Gonna be skin to skin.”

“Yup,” Keith says, standing to toe off his boots. “Or at least I am. Do you plan on having sex with your clothes on?”

“No!” Lance objects immediately, frowning. He tugs off his jacket and then his shirt, fumbling with his shoes while Keith shimmies out of his pants. Keith decides to keep his briefs on for now, since Lance is so nervous, although the start of an erection is already straining against the fabric.

Lance looks up from taking off his shoes and freezes, looking up and down Keith’s body with an open mouth. Keith kneels down to meet his eyes, hands on Lance’s knees.

“You know we can stop anytime,” Keith says. “Continue later. Or never.”

Lance glares at him. “I’m not backing out!” he says. “And just because I’m… thinking too much doesn’t mean you need to act all condescending.”

Keith frowns. He was just trying to be considerate.

“Fine,” he says, reaching for the button of Lance’s jeans. “As long you understand you can say no.”

Lance rolls his eyes and smacks Keith’s hands away, leaning back and lifting up his hips to pull down his jeans himself.

“Yeah, _thanks,_ ” Lance says. “I’ve had the consent talk too, dipshit.”

Keith helps him pull the legs off and throws the pants over his shoulder, then takes advantage of Lance’s position to pin him to the bed.

“Then you should know why I said it, asshole,” Keith grumbles. Lance huffs.

“I, Lance, do solemnly vow,” Lance begins, and Keith rolls his hips. They both gasp. “Th-that I am sound of both body and mind-” Keith leans over to mouth at his shoulder. Lance arches up to press closer. “When- when I say that-” Keith _sucks_ and Lance keens. “I _really_ really want to have sex with you right now, Keith!” he gasps.

Keith detaches his mouth with a smirk. “Glad to hear it. Because I’m kind of into this.”

“Just _kind of_?” Lance squawks. “Oh come on, you are _so_ into this.”

“Hmm.” Keith rolls his hips again, hissing at the sensation of their hardening dicks rubbing together, even through the layers of fabric. “Which part, do you think?”

“Which-! Um, how about _all_ of my parts!? You know I’m hot, dude!”

Keith snickers and leans in for a kiss. He will admit to nothing.

When he finally pulls back, Keith asks, “How do you want to do this?”

Lance responds with an eloquent, “Huh?”

“How do you want to do,” Keith repeats, reaching down to rub against the front of Lance’s boxers, “ _this_? Sex.”

“Um...” Lance’s eyes roll back as he rubs and the boy can’t seem to say anything coherent so Keith stops doing it. Lance whines.

“Hand job? Blow job? Anal?” Keith clarifies, still rocking slowly. “Maybe just rub against each other until we come in our underwear?”

“Um...” Lance repeats. Keith stops moving completely and Lance groans. “Shit, I dunno, dude! Surprise me!”

Keith hums, taking pity on the boy and continuing to roll his hips while he thinks. Surprise him? Keith can do that.

Without another word, Keith crawls off the bed and kneels on the floor, pulling on Lance’s legs so he slides forward and Keith is face to crotch with him. The other boy squeaks when Keith pulls down his boxers and reaches for his dick.

Keith takes a moment to admire it, giving the flushed organ a good, slow stroke while Lance props himself up on his elbows to watch.

“You just gonna stare at it?” Lance leers. Keith gives him a glare before promptly opening his mouth and leaning forward to swallow Lance’s dick.

“Fuck!” Lance shouts, bucking his hips until Keith chokes and pulls back with a cough.

“Don’t _do_ that, you ass!”

“Sorry! I’m sorry.” Lance seems genuinely apologetic, so Keith let’s it go. Mostly.

“Just don’t do it again,” he mutters, putting his hands on Lance’s hips to hold him down and approaching his penis with a little more caution this time. He licks from base to tip then opens his mouth to suck on the head with a swirl of his tongue.

“Shit! Oh fuck,” Lance groans, falling back on the mattress, legs and abs tightening in his effort to hold still. As Keith continues he enjoys watching the other boy fall apart, hands gripping and twisting the blanket, breath hitching, face twisting. Seeing Lance like this makes his own dick twitch with need.

Keith gives it a good effort and Lance seems inexperienced, so it’s only a couple minutes later that Lance is stuttering, “K-Keith, _oh god_ , I- I’m gonna - “ Knowing very well what that means, Keith opens wide and goes deep, then back up with a strong suck.

Lance comes with a shout, spine curling up while Keith gently sucks him through his orgasm, swallowing with every spurt of semen. Lance places his hands on Keith’s shoulders when he’s done, shaking as Keith licks him clean.

“Holy shit,” Lance whispers. “Holy shit.”

Keith lets go with a smug grin, basking in the satisfaction of a job well done. But his own dick is still hard and needy, so Keith stands to pull off his briefs and then reaches for Lance’s boxers.

“Um,” Lance rasps as he eyes Keith’s penis. “Did you want me to - ?”

“Don’t worry about it,” Keith says, tossing Lance’s underwear aside. “Lie down, would you? I have something different in mind.”

“O-okay,” Lance stutters, adjusting to lie down properly in the bed while Keith moves to the panel in the wall to fetch the lube. After pouring some out and liberally coating his dick, he crawls on the bed and positions himself between Lance’s legs, who is now eyeing Keith like he’s some sort of nightmare come to life.

What the fuck? Keith pauses to try and figure out what is going through that weird little mind. What does he think he’s going to - ? ...Oh.

“I’m not gonna stick it in your ass,” Keith says, and tries not to laugh at Lance’s visible relief.

“I knew that!” he protests, and now Keith can’t help but snicker.

“Sure,” he says. “I mean, if you really _want_ me to - “

“No!” Lance squeaks. “No! I’m good, very good. Continue with whatever the fuck you plan on doing, Mullet.”

“Are you really going to insult my hair right now?” Keith grumbles, pulling Lance’s legs up and over one shoulder.

“There’s never a bad time to insult that hair. That hair exists to be made fun of,” Lance insists, while Keith presses forward to guide his dick between Lance’s thighs and thrusts. “Oh!”

“You okay there?” Keith asks, breaths coming faster as he takes pleasure in the sensation.

“Yeah...” Lance watches avidly as Keith fucks his thighs, taking the initiative to cross his legs and squeeze. Keith groans. “Does that feel good?”

“What do you think?” Keith says, closing his eyes and throwing his head back. Fuck yes, it feels good.

“Just asking, jeez.”

Keith gets into it, thrusting faster and harder until Lance’s whole body jerks with each thrust.

“Anything I can do to help?” Lance breathes out, “Or should I just lie back and think of England?”

“Just… shut up!” Keith groans. Fuck, he’s close.

“Got it. Shutting up. But wow you look really into it right now, and I kinda like it? Like, I wanna kiss you right now. Is that weird?”

That is so not shutting up, Lance, but it doesn’t even matter because Keith comes with a drawn out moan, semen splattering across Lance’s thighs and stomach. As Keith slumps forward, leaning into Lance’s legs with a sigh, Lance trails a finger through the spunk, grimacing.

“Eww.”

“Shut up, asshole,” Keith says. “I just swallowed _yours_ so you can stand to have it on your skin for a minute.”

“Nope. No I can’t. Even a minute is a minute too long,” Lance says, grabbing Keith’s blanket and wiping himself off with it. That fucker.

“Hey!” Keith says, but it’s too late. He shifts away and shoves Lance’s legs off him with a scowl. “That’s my only blanket.”

“Um… no? There’s more in the linen closet.”

“...There’s a linen closet?”

Lance laughs, and Keith crosses his arms.

“Oh my god!” Lance cries. “You knew where to find the lube, but not the blankets! This is amazing!”

“Shut up,” Keith says. “So what? It’s a big castle. Before you wiped your jizz on it I was perfectly fine with the one blanket I had.” Lance keeps laughing and Keith leans back against the wall. “It’s really not that funny.”

“It really is!” Lance says when he is able talk again.

“If you say so.” Resigned to fetching another blanket later and doing some laundry, Keith wipes himself off too. “Did you want to take a nap or something?”

Lance eyes him with a shit-eating smirk.

“...Are you saying you want to cuddle with me, Mullet?”

That’s it. He was just trying to be polite, but Keith is so done with this fucker.

“Nevermind,” he says, grabbing Lance by the arm and pulling him off the bed. “You’re leaving right now. Invitation revoked. Get out.”

“H-hey!” Lance squawks, stumbling to pick up his clothes as Keith pushes him toward the door. “At least let me get dressed first!”

“Your room is right next door.” Lance looks completely horrified, so Keith allows, “Fine. You can put on your pants.”

Keith’s glare says not to fuck with him, so Lance hastily pulls on his jeans and heads to the door with the rest of his clothes in his arms.

“Sheesh,” Lance mutters. “You’re pretty grumpy for a guy who just had sex. Do I not even get a kiss goodbye, snookums?”

“ _Goodbye_ , Lance,” Keith says, and shoves him out of his room.

In the fresh silence, still bare-ass naked, Keith seriously questions his life choices.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My first time writing smut. *wipes away tear* Hopefully it was as awkward, funny, (and maybe a bit sexy) as I was aiming for. This could probably be a one shot, but I had to make sure they live happily ever after. So two more chapters coming up, introducing Other Characters (gasp), a bit more smut, and lots more banter!
> 
> Edit: I illustrated the scene where Keith accidentally seduces Lance, check it out [over on Tumblr](https://n-adagio.tumblr.com/post/159962941622/illustrated-snippet-of-my-nsfw-fic-lets-get).


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance freaks out and Keith makes him a deal. There's training with the team, a bonding moment, and a quickie.

Dinner that night is awkward. Not because Keith regrets having sex with Lance (surprisingly), but because Lance clearly does not know how to deal with having had sex with _him_. Apparently their activities didn’t fully sink in for Lance until after leaving his room because unlike the annoying but normal boy of before, the Lance here and now is a flustered _mess_.

Keith reaches across the table for a serving dish and Lance, sitting beside him as usual, noticeably leans away. He picks at his food, eyes lowered and blushing heavily, unusually quiet and good god he’s just so _obvious_.

“You okay, Lance?” Hunk asks, clearly worried about him like everyone else at the table is except Keith. Well, actually… Keith _is_ worried but for entirely different reasons.

“Yup! I am A-okay, Hunk my dude!” Lance squeaks, still staring at his plate. And Keith knows that no one else knows what happened earlier, but to him Lance’s behavior is just screaming _I had sex and I’m freaking out about it_!

Hunk exchanges a worried glance with Shiro. Meanwhile Pidge stares at Lance like he’s a puzzle to solve (and oh god, what if she actually figures it out?) and Allura and Coran have the tact to at least pretend like everything is normal by mostly ignoring them all.

“You sure? ‘Cause you’re kind of… quiet,” Hunk presses. Keith has an unwelcome urge to punch Hunk in the face, which is ridiculous because Hunk is a kind and wonderful human being. Keith doesn’t _want_ to have violent urges toward Hunk.

“Very sure. One hundred percent sure I’m sure,” Lance says loudly to overcompensate.

“Maybe you’re sick,” Keith suggests, eyebrows raised in a _come on, man, work with me here_ kind of look. Lance just stares at him, eyes wide, mouth agape. The idiot.

“Are you?” Shiro asks, leaning across the table to give Lance a closer look. “You do look flushed. Do you think you have a fever?”

“Um.”

“It must be a bad fever,” Keith says. “His brain is fried.”

“Um!” Lance says, still staring at Keith. Pidge looks between Keith and Lance speculatively, and Keith starts to feel nervous. She’s just too smart.

“Fevers can be dangerous if they get too high,” Shiro says, frowning. “I should probably take you to the med bay to check.”

“You don’t have to waste your time,” Keith says, pushing away his plate. “I’m already done with my food, I can take him.”

“Um!?” Lance says. Keith stands and pulls him to his feet. Pidge stares at them intensely and Keith begins to sweat.

“Thanks, Keith,” Shiro says. “It’s nice to see you volunteering to help out a teammate.”

“Thanks, Keith!” Hunk echoes, grateful to stay and eat more while still knowing that his friend is being taken care of.

“Go Team Voltron,” Keith deadpans, and drags Lance from the room to a chorus of “goodnight” and “feel better soon”. Lance stumbles along without protest and that just makes it even more clear that something is seriously wrong with him. Keith actually does brings him to the med bay, just in case the mice are watching, and then turns to Lance with a snarl.

“What the fuck is your problem, Lance?” he asks.

Lance stares at him for a moment, face red and twitching. And then he explodes with, “My problem!? You had my dick in your mouth!”

“What?” He can’t be serious right now. “I mean, yes, I did. But why the fuck are you acting so weird about it?”

“You had my dick. In your mouth!” Lance says. As if Keith didn’t hear him the first time.

“Yes. I did.” Keith grits his teeth. “So what?”

“So what!?” Lance cries, throwing his hands up in the air. “So I can’t stop _thinking_ about it! It’s so weird that you had my dick in your mouth! But it was also super hot and it felt so good!? Like, I’ve basically had a nonstop boner ever since it happened thinking about my dick. In your mouth!”

Keith closes his eyes and just… breathes. He is calm. He is patient.

“You need to get over it, Lance,” he says. “Unless you want everyone else knowing that your dick was in my mouth?”

“NO!” Lance shouts, looking truly appalled. “I just… do you think - ? Would you maybe… do it again?”

“Lance.” Keith’s fists clench. “Right now I am trying… _very hard_ , not to punch you in the face. I am not in the mood to give you a blow job.”

“…Does that mean you might be, later?”

 _Deep breaths, Keith_.

“Lance.” _Deep breaths._ “If you go to your room and stay there until morning. If you come to breakfast tomorrow and act like your normal, annoying self. If you do not reveal to everyone else living on this ship that we had sex. I will _consider_ having sex with you again.”

“Deal!” Lance chirps, and holds out his hand to shake on it. Keith stares at that hand and does not shake it. That hand retreats and changes shape to make a finger-gun while Lance winks at him. “Going to my room to rub one out until tomorrow, then.”

Keith crosses his arms. He waits.

“All right, all right! I’m going!” Lance pouts. He leaves the room and Keith sighs, rubbing his face. Is sex really worth dealing with this?

Lance immediately pops back into the room with a sheepish grin. “Um, you mentioned there’s lube in here?”

Keith points to the correct drawer wordlessly and watches as the other boy digs around until he finds the container of space lube with an, “Aha!” Lance leaves the med bay for the second time, lube in hand, waving a goodbye and calling out, “See you later, honeybunch!”

The worst of it is, Keith knows himself and he knows that if Lance holds up his end of the bargain and maybe even if he doesn’t... they’ll probably have sex again.

* * *

The next morning Keith enters the dining room with no small amount of dread. It’s still a few minutes early so only Hunk is present, setting out the day’s breakfast as part of his unofficial and self-volunteered duties in the castle.

“Thanks, Hunk,” Keith says, because he can be polite. Hunk smiles at him.

“No problem, man. Did Lance get to bed okay last night?”

It takes Keith’s paranoid mind a moment to realize why he’s asking _Keith_.

“Uh, yeah. Wasn’t a bad fever, probably just a 24-hour bug type thing.”

“That’s good. I hope it doesn’t spread to the rest of us! We should all probably wash our hands more, just in case.”

“...Sure. Good idea.” Except Lance wasn’t _actually_ sick, and his problems definitely aren’t contagious.

Keith settles in to eat breakfast across from Hunk. Within minutes the others start trickling in. Pidge first, still typing away on her laptop doing… something. Allura and Coran next, chatting about what’s to come with the day’s training. Keith tunes them out, he doesn’t need to know until later. Then Shiro comes in and greets everyone with a tired smile.

Until _finally_ Lance arrives, bounding into the room with a sunny smile on his face as though he didn’t have sex and then freak out about it yesterday. Keith feels some of his tension ease. Maybe they can do this without it being weird.

“Good morning, all!” Lance says. Hunk and Shiro respond with a “good morning.”

“Good morning, Keith!” Lance says, raising his eyebrows hopefully. Like a puppy looking for approval after doing something good. Except this behavior isn’t normal and doesn’t help with the _act casual_ rule.

“...Morning,” he says. At least it’s better than last night.

“I’m glad you’re feeling better, Lance,” Shiro says. “Just let me know if you don’t feel up to any of today’s exercises.”

“Will do, _mi capit_ _á_ _n_ ,” Lance says and digs into his food.

What follows is a surprisingly normal meal when you consider that they live in a castle in space with a crew that includes two aliens and four psychic mice and that they pilot giant magic robot lions to fight against the despotic purple furries that rule the universe. Yeah, normal.

Today is the equivalent of a Monday for the paladins, back to a full schedule of training after their day of rest. So everyone is a bit quiet and resigned to doing something tedious or unpleasant soon.

“Is there going to be any free time today?” Hunk asks, taking a second helping of breakfast. “’Cause there’s this mod I’m trying to do on Yellow and I want to keep working on it.”

“You’ll have to ask Coran and the Princess,” Shiro says. “I don’t know what they have planned.”

“What more does Yellow need, big guy?” Lance asks around a mouthful of food goo. “I mean, that is one tricked out lion.”

Hunk seems embarrassed, but still answers, “Well, I’m trying to improve the suspension system. So I’m not bouncing around so much, you know? Maybe it will help with the nausea.”

“Good idea,” Pidge says, looking up from her screen. “I don’t think the lions were designed with the fragility of the human body in mind. Let me know if you get it working, Hunk.”

“Sure thing,” Hunk says, quietly pleased.

“All right, paladins!” Coran shouts with his usual enthusiasm. “We’ll be practicing some flight maneuvers today, so grab your armor and get to your lions. You have fifteen dobashes to be in the hangar starting… now!”

By now they know exactly how long that will take and what the consequences will be if they’re late, so the paladins all scramble to the door, their food abandoned on the table whether they were finished with it or not.

* * *

Seeing a flash of metal that shouldn’t be there in his view screen, Keith instinctively dodges and then watches angrily as the Blue Lion passes over head with a barrel roll, nearly clipping Red with its tail in the process.

“Dammit, Lance!” Keith yells over the comms, “Stay in your flight path!”

“Chillax, man!” Lance’s image pops up onscreen to leer at him. “I didn’t hit you, it’s fine.”

“Only because I - !”

“Guys, this isn’t the time to be fooling around,” Shiro interrupts, as if any of this is _Keith_ ’s fault!

“I gotta disagree,” Lance says, because he just can not taking anything seriously ever. “Now is the best time for me to fool around with Keith!”

“...”

“That came out wrong,” Lance says as Pidge busts out into gleeful cackling.

“To do what now with Keith?” Hunk asks.

“Might want to wait until you’re out of your lions,” Pidge says between breathless chuckles. “I’m not sure how Red and Blue would feel about that!”

“Yeah, yeah, laugh it up,” Lance says, laughing a bit himself. Meanwhile Keith stews silently in embarrassment.

“Let’s focus, everyone, we’re almost there,” Shiro says, and Keith hopes that’s the end of the nonsense.

...It isn’t.

“Race you to the strike zone, Mullet!”

“We’re all supposed to get there at the same time!” Keith protests. Hopelessly, because Lance is already accelerating. And it doesn’t matter that it’s stupid, that to speed up will just encourage him. Red’s pride is on the line as the fastest lion. He has to get there first!

Keith accelerates, ignoring Shiro’s despairing voice as he asks, “Can we not get through one simple exercise…?”

* * *

“So things weren’t totally awful out there,” Shiro says to them while gathered after their morning exercises, still in their armor. “No one got hurt, and we completed our objectives, even if… unconventionally.”

“Your standards are pretty low for ‘completed’,” Pidge says, and Shiro ignores her.

“But we should really focus on following the _plan_.” Shiro looks between Lance and Keith significantly. Lance grins, unrepentant as ever, while Keith crosses his arms with a huff. “I know these exercises aren’t always fun, but they’re important practice for real missions. So stay focused.”

“Aye, aye!” Lance salutes, as if 95% of the time it isn’t _him_ who loses focus, as if next time for sure he’ll take shit seriously. Unlikely.

“There’s some time before lunch, you can do your own thing until then. This afternoon there will be group combat training so be prepared for that. Dismissed.”

They all exit the hangar, most heading toward their rooms to change out of their armor until they need it again after lunch, but Keith peels away to head to the training deck. It’s not until a minute later that he realizes Lance is trailing behind him.

“What do you want?” Keith asks, suspicious, while they walk.

“Can a guy not just want to hang with another guy?” Lance says with a too-innocent face, catching up to walk beside him. But if that was his true motive Lance would have followed Hunk, not Keith, right?

“I’m not giving you a blow job right now,” Keith says.

Lance falters in his step, face blushing as he stutters, “U-um. Wait- not  _right now_? Does that mean you will later? _”_

Keith sighs and walks faster. Lance hurries to catch up with him.

“Hey! Sorry, ignore that. That’s fine, I mean… that’s not why I’m here.”

“Then why are you here?”

“I just said, Mullet,” Lance says with a frown. “To hang out.”

“Well,” Keith says as they reach the entrance to the training deck. “You can stick around if you want, but I’m going to train.”

“Didn’t we _just_ get done training?” Lance groans, hovering by the entrance while Keith walks to the center of the floor. “Aren’t we going to train again after lunch? Why are you training _now_?”

“Different kind of training,” Keith explains, taking out his bayard. “Earlier it was piloting our lions, later it will be team focused combat. Right now it’s solo combat.”

“We’re part of a team so that we don’t _have_ to fight solo,” Lance says.

“The team won’t always be there,” Keith says, before addressing the room at large. “Start training level one.”

A gladiator drops from the ceiling and Keith engages it with his bayard. Lance is quiet while Keith warms up fighting the lowest level bot. He defeats it quickly and it disappears in a cloud of blue light, at which point Lance speaks up to whine, “I’m bored!”

“We’re in a training room,” Keith points out, breathing a little faster now. “So train.”

“How?” Lance asks. “With who? Doing what?”

Keith shrugs. “It’s a big room with lots of tech, figure it out. Start training level three.”

A gladiator drops and this one is significantly stronger. Keith has to focus in order to fight and not get hurt. So he’s not paying attention when Lance actually follows his advice, which means it’s a complete surprise when he dodges the gladiator’s attack and comes face to face with another gladiator hell bent on stabbing him in the chest.

“What the fuck!” Keith cries, knocking its sword away. He quickly scuttles back to see that, yes, there are two of them now. “What did you do!?”

“It didn’t seem fair to take it two on one,” Lance explains with a grin, lifting his bayard. “So I evened the odds.” He then shoots gladiator number two in the back, causing it to turn and run toward him, sword raised. Oh hell no.

Bringing number one down with a sweep of his leg, Keith sprints after the second one and slices at its arm. While number one is still climbing to its feet, number two turns to hold off Keith. Except the minute it lifts its sword, it gets a laser shot straight to the back of its head and blows up, defeated. Keith immediately switches to number one, exchanging a series of blows until it’s distracted by a laser shot to its shoulder and Keith kills it with a sword to the gut.

Lance whoops, delighted, and Keith pants.

“That was awesome!” Lance says, eyes sparkling. “Wanna see how many we can take at once?”

Slowly, Keith smiles. That… actually sounds like a lot of fun. “Let’s try three first and work our way up. They should all be level one. I’m not eager to die.”

“Sure thing, Mullet.” Raising his bayard to pose dramatically, Lance calls out in a booming voice, “Start training level one!”

For a while after that, things are pure exhilarating chaos. Swords and laser fire everywhere, they run around yelling and cheering, trying to defeat the gladiators and not get seriously hurt in the process.

Twenty minutes in, they’re both on the floor screaming, rolling around trying to avoid getting stabbed by any of the four gladiators on the floor. Deciding they’re completely fucked and enough is enough, Keith shouts, “END TRAINING SEQUENCE!”

The gladiators are gone, and the room is quiet except for their heavy breathing. Then Lance is rolling around again, this time with helpless laughter.

“So - “ Laugh. “Cool!” Chuckle. “We’re - “ Snort. “So cool!”

Keith rolls over to watch him laugh with a smile. It really was cool, even if they got their asses handed to them by the end.

“We should do this more often,” Keith suggests, enjoying a rare moment with Lance that is both fun and cooperative.

“Yeah!” Lance gasps, rolling to look at him and then posing like an exaggerated swimsuit or lingerie model but with waggling eyebrows. It looks ridiculous. “And then maybe we can _reward_ ourselves, after. You know, for a job well done.”

Keith sighs. Moment over. He gets to his feet.

“Maybe not,” he says, and Lance actually looks a bit disappointed. Keith rolls his eyes and offers him a hand. Lance takes it and then he’s pulling him to his feet and they’re standing, hands clasped. Keith looks at their hands, then back to Lance’s face. He can’t help but smile fondly. “You know… there’s still some time before lunch and we’re pretty gross. Maybe we should shower.”

“We’re going to get gross again right after lunch,” Lance points out, “And these suits are really good at absorbing sweat. I think they might actually be magic.”

Keith shakes his head, dropping Lance’s hand. This boy. This is what he gets for trying to be subtle.

“Lance, let’s go have sex in the shower,” Keith says, bluntly this time.

“Oh. OH!” Lance blushes. “Yeah, okay.”

Lance doesn’t talk much as they leave the training deck and head toward the large bathroom by their living quarters. He seems nervous, which after yesterday Keith decides must be normal for him and is probably not a sign that he doesn’t actually want to have sex. Right? For all his big talk, Lance seems inexperienced so being nervous is normal, isn’t it? It still bothers him to see Lance so quiet.

They arrive in the shower room and strip off their armor in silence, leaving their boots, helmets, and assorted pieces on a bench and placing their body suits in a device that acts like a washer and dryer in one, but is faster and more efficient. Somehow. Keith has a personal rule of not questioning the tech.

He turns to Lance, who stands watching him in turn – naked with his usual poor posture and crossed arms. Keith gives the other boy’s body an appreciative once over and Lance drops his arms, straightens his back, and puffs out his chest.

“Like what you see?” Lance asks with a leer.

“Yes,” Keith says simply, stepping closer.

“G-good.” Lance only falters for a moment. “You’re pretty hot too, sweet cheeks, even with the mullet.”

“Don’t call me that.” Keith wrinkles his nose, choosing to ignore the mullet comment for now. He has to pick his battles.

“Don’t like ‘sweet cheeks’?” Keith reaches for his arm as he babbles and pulls him into one of the shower stalls. “What about ‘buggy bear’? ‘Baby cakes’? ‘Pumpkin pie’?”

“Those are all terrible,” Keith grumbles, stepping in close so they both fit in the stall meant for one. He turns on the water. “And you know it. Why can’t you just call me ‘Keith’?”

“Gotta have a cute pet name for the bae,” Lance says, smirking. He wraps his arms around Keith and pulls him in tighter, tilting his head down so they’re touching nose to nose.

Bae? Not sure what to say to that and a little uncomfortable meeting those eyes right now, Keith looks away. He raises one hand to the muscle of Lance’s shoulder and touches the mark he finds there.

“Oops,” Keith says when he remembers. Lance notices what he’s looking at and snickers.

“No problem, don’t worry about it,” he says. “But a few inches higher and I might have needed a scarf.” He pauses. “I don’t have a scarf, Keith, so that would have been a problem.”

“Got it,” Keith drawls, “No hickeys on the neck.”

“I mean, I could maybe be convinced,” Lance says. “If you want to act like a skin sucking vampire I’m not going to stop you, is what I’m saying.”

“No hickeys on the neck,” Keith repeats, head lowering to the opposite shoulder. “Here, on the other hand…?”

Lance shudders as Keith’s lips touch his skin, he sighs when Keith opens his mouth and twirls his tongue, he groans as Keith begins to suck.

“Shit, stop, come here.”

Lance grabs Keith’s hair and pulls his head up, bringing their mouths together for a deep kiss. As they continue to make out, Keith lifts his hands between them to stroke the skin of Lance’s stomach and thighs – getting close to but never touching his groin. Lance whimpers and grabs Keith by the ass to pull their hips together, trapping Keith’s hands between them as their dicks swell. Keith shivers.

“You cold?” Lance breathes against his lips.

“You are hogging all the water,” Keith points out, so Lance shuffles them around until Keith is standing under the spray of hot water and Lance is the one shivering in the cold air. To Keith’s surprise, Lance then drops to his knees on the hard flooring and Keith’s dick is now right there in Lance’s face.

“Uh...” Keith says.

“What, I can’t return the favor?” Lance asks defensively, eyeing Keith’s penis like maybe he’s having second thoughts.

Keith considers telling him he doesn’t have to, but he remembers how Lance reacted yesterday when he said something like that. How can Keith make Lance less nervous?

“Are you scared of my dick, Lance?” Keith taunts. It works. Lance immediately looks more confident, gripping Keith’s dick firmly in one hand.

“No I’m not,” Lance scowls. “I’m just… thinking about how I want to do this. Not everyone runs into things without a plan.”

“You put your lips and your tongue on it but not your teeth,” Keith says. No longer for Lance’s benefit, he just can’t _not_ react to a statement like that. “It’s not super complicated.”

“Shut up, asshole. I’m trying to give you an orgasm!”

“So get on with it! Before we - “ Keith cuts off with a gasp as Lance carefully places his lips around the head of Keith’s cock and tongues the tip. “Have to...” He trails off, bracing one hand against the wall and letting the other rest gently in Lance’s hair. “Uh.”

It’s not the most skillful blow job he’s ever received, but to be honest it doesn’t take much skill for the wet heat of Lance’s mouth and tongue to feel good on Keith’s aroused penis. Lance successfully avoids scraping anything with his teeth, so Keith is enjoying this a lot.

Which is why he’s pretty pissed off when Hunk comes into the shower room yelling, “Lance? Keith?”

They both freeze, Lance pulling away from his dick with wide eyes, Keith staring at him equally startled. Thank fuck for the Alteans who designed the shower, because at least the door is opaque when in use so Hunk can’t possibly see what’s going on.

“Yeah, buddy?” Lance calls out, voice only slightly pitchy. Impressive.

“Lunch is ready, we were wondering where you are,” Hunk explains. “Is Keith in here?”

“Nope! No Keith,” Lance says, gesturing to Keith to shut up. As if Keith was planning on making any noise to give them away! “I’m all alone in here, nobody but me.”

“...Really? Isn’t that his armor?” Hunk is confused, but it’s too late to turn back now.

“I mean he was here _earlier_!” Lance shouts, still on his knees with a hand around Keith’s dick. “But he left. Must have forgot his armor.”

“Huh, yeah. Do you know where he went?” Hunk says. “I didn’t run into him on the way.”

“Not a clue, Hunk my man! Keith’s mysterious ways are steeped in mystery, unknowable to those of us less… mysterious.”

“Uh huh. Thanks. Hurry up in there, would you?” Hunk says. “I’m hungry and still need to find Keith.”

“Hurrying!” Lance confirms, and they wait in tense silence as Hunk walks away and leaves the bathroom to search for Keith. Who is in fact right here with Lance.

The whole exchange has dampened their arousal somewhat, but Keith is determined to get off. Only now they have a strict timeline of _as soon as possible_. Keith pulls Lance to his feet and pins him against the wall. Lance yelps.

“I’m mysterious?” he asks, placing Lance’s fingers around his dick with one hand and grabbing Lance in the other. His strokes are shallow, quick, and firm. Lance matches him stroke for stroke.

“Um, y-yeah,” Lance chokes, pressing his head against the wall with a sigh. “Never know what’s going on in that head of - “ He groans, thrusting slightly to fuck Keith’s hand. “Of yours.”

“I thought I’m pretty obvious,” Keith says, breathing shallow. “I do what I want, say what I think.”

“Yeah? So what- what do you want,” Lance sighs, opening his eyes to look into Keith’s. “Right now?”

“Right now we don’t have time,” Keith says, rubbing a thumb along the tip of Lance’s cock and stroking down with a twist. “But I want to wrap your legs around me and fuck you in the ass, right here against the wall.”

“Of _fuck_!” Lance moans, beginning to come in Keith’s hand. Seeing his blissed out face, Keith is triggered to orgasm as well. He leans forward to smash their lips together in a hard kiss while they helplessly jerk their hips.

Their hips stop, their hands slow, and their lips gentle. High on the pleasure of sex, Keith licks at Lance’s mouth with reverence, completely forgetting that they should be in a hurry.

It’s another minute before he pulls away to see Lance watching him with drooping eyes and a soft smile. Something about that expression makes Keith’s face burn, and so he turns to face the shower’s spray.

“Rinse off quick,” Keith says. “We’re already really late.”

“So a few more minutes won’t matter then,” Lance responds. But he’s still quick to rinse off. Keith turns off the water when they’re done and grabs two towels, tossing one to Lance before he dries off.

They’re pulling on their freshly cleaned suits and Keith is reaching for the rest of his armor when Lance stops him with a, “nope!”

“What?” Keith asks, holding up the chest plate.

“You forgot your armor on the bench, remember?” Lance says with a shit-eating grin. “So why would you have it when you get to the dining room?”

“I guess I came back for it,” Keith huffs. He continues to pull on the chest plate.

“I’m just trying to keep our story consistent.” Lance pouts, tugging on his own armor.

“You just want to see me running around the castle in a skin-tight bodysuit,” Keith says. Lance laughs, picking up his helmet.

“Well that would definitely be a plus. It’s not too late, you know.” Lance wags his eyebrows and leans in to give Keith a peck on the cheek. Keith freezes for a startled moment. Lance dances away, fully dressed now.

“Better hurry, porky poo! We’re already late!”

“Don’t call me that!” Keith shouts after him, but there’s a smile on his face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So much for not getting it on in public spaces, you guys. Hope this made you laugh some. :) Next chapter, there's a bit of drama and important talk, with just a bit more smut. Coming soon!


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lunch, team training, and a drama fest. Important conversation and a good time.

Pidge gives them a long, searching look when they finally get to the dining room (Keith decidedly ignores her). Shiro scolds them for being so late, and Hunk (who eventually gave up on finding Keith and returned to the table) is mildly upset that he had to search the castle for them and delay lunch. But there is no long interrogation about their activities or why they are late. They appear to be safe on that front.

So while Lance appeases Hunk with promises of bro time and help with his projects, Keith settles in to eat lunch feeling hungry and pleased. Unusually pleased, apparently, because Shiro decides to comment, “You’re in a good mood, Keith.” And to Keith’s despair his mind blanks of all reasonable explanations that aren’t _I just had sex_. Oh fuck.

“Uh...”

“Oh, Shiro, It was so cool! We went up against _four_ of the gladiators! Four! And we didn’t die!” Lance cuts in to rescue him, and Keith has the sudden, strange urge to kiss him. Except that would be weird, wouldn’t it? And work against the situation he needs rescuing from in the first place, i.e. making sure no one knows they had sex.

“They also kicked our asses,” Keith feels the need to point out.

“Whatever, Keith. It was our first try. We were able to take down three of them!” Lance crosses his arms.

“Because they were all on level one.”

“No, nope! You’re not gonna lessen my pride in this, Mullet,” Lance says. “You know it was cool and we are total badasses.”

“I didn’t know that it’s possible to fight more than one at a time,” Shiro says before Keith can keep the banter going, looking surprised and impressed. “That’s a good idea, you guys. Hey, Coran?”

Coran turns away from his conversation with the Princess. “Yes, Number Two?”

“Can we incorporate multiple gladiators into our combat training?” Shiro calls down the table, and from beside him Hunk groans out “noooooo.”

“A most excellent plan!” Coran says, tugging on his mustache. “I was going to suggest the shielding exercise today, but this is even better!”

“Whyyyyyy,” Hunk says, drowning his quiet complaints in his bowl of food goo. Keith and Lance exchange a wary glance. They already had their crazy nightmare training for the day and don’t really feel up to more, but they’re also the ones who started this mess so can they really complain?

“They can fight with different weapons, right?” Pidge speaks up. “Not just the staff? So it could be a mixed team of fighters to compliment our own fighting styles.”

“You should experience a broad range of scenarios with a varied number of opponents, type of weapons, and arrangement of teammates by your side,” the Princess says, nodding.

“But we won’t face all of them today,” Shiro reminds the rest of the paladins, who are all looking a bit ill. “That’s a long term goal. Today we should start simple.”

“As you say,” Allura agrees, but she seems disappointed. Probably because she’s a sadist.

* * *

Group combat training is as chaotic, difficult, and frustrating as they expect it to be with the new multi-opponent scenarios, and everyone collapses on the floor at the end with groans of exhaustion. Thankfully Shiro is kind enough to bring the drink pouches over instead of making them fetch one for themselves.

“This is all your fault, man,” Hunk grumbles at Lance. “We might have gone forever without knowing we could fight more than one gladiator, but you had to say something.”

“You’re just jealous you didn’t think of it first,” Lance says, unconcerned by his friend’s anger. “I know I’m a genius but you’re pretty smart too, buddy.”

“It’s an important thing to train for,” Keith defends. “We’re pretty much outnumbered all the time, so...”

Lance shoots him a brilliant smile in thanks and Keith looks away, flushed.

Hunk groans. “I know, and it’s probably gonna save our butts someday. But like… it’s so hard?”

“There, there,” Pidge comforts dryly.

“You guys should stretch a bit while you’re down there,” Shiro suggests from his standing position. How is he not exhausted like the rest of them? The jerk. “You don’t want to be sore tomorrow.”

“Yes, sir!” Lance chirps, and bends forward over his legs. Keith makes a halfhearted effort to stretch his shoulders, but mostly just watches the curve of Lance’s spine as he relaxes into the stretch.

“Soooo... Lance. Keith. Are you guys together now or is it just a sex thing?” Pidge asks, completely out of fucking _nowhere_.

“WHAT!?” Lance chokes, blushes, and waves his hands around all at once. Keith’s face freezes in an expression of shock. “Why would you ask that!? What makes you think that we- um.”

“You’re not very subtle about it,” Pidge snorts. Hunk is gaping and Shiro looks between Lance and Keith with a concerned frown.

“Is that true?” Shiro asks. His voice is gentle and not accusing, but it still feels intrusive.

“Um. Which part?” Lance fumbles for an answer. He looks at Keith and searches his face for help but Keith feels numb, his face blank and revealing nothing.

“So one part _is_ true,” Pidge smirks, “Meaning either way you’re definitely having sex.”

“Pidge, that’s enough,” Shiro snaps and she shrinks back, abashed. Hunk puts a comforting hand on her shoulder. Shiro turns to Lance and Keith and softens his tone. “Would you like to tell us what’s going on?”

“I don’t see how it’s any of your business.” Lance puffs up defensively. Keith watches them mutely. “What does it matter what we do in our own time?”

“I think it matters and it _is_ my business because the whole team is effected by any interpersonal drama,” Shiro says more firmly. “Casual sex can ruin friendships and I’m not sure you’re mature enough to - “

“Not _mature_ enough?” Lance snarls, suddenly furious and getting to his feet to face off against Shiro. Has anyone ever seen him this angry before? “So we’re mature enough to risk our lives in a war we were basically _conscripted_ into fighting, but we’re not mature enough to have consensual sex with another person? That’s complete bullshit.”

Coran and the Princess have come down from the observation room by this point and are watching the back and forth with wide eyes. “What is happening?” Allura whispers to Hunk, who shakes his head without a word.

“I’m just saying that you need to be careful,” Shiro says. “And hiding what you’re doing makes it seem like you’re uncertain and things are already on shaky ground. I want you to feel that you can confide in us - “

“Confide in you!? When you’re basically telling us that we’re being stupid and making a mistake?” Lance’s fists are clenched as he stands tall and stiff. “Well now you know, Shiro. Keith and I are having sex. Do you need more detail? The exact times and positions? Should I come tell you every time I have a hard on and get your permission before we do it?”

Shiro is upset. _Everyone_ is upset. Lance has become someone completely unfamiliar to them in defense of his and Keith’s actions, and no one knows how to deal with it. Shouldn’t Keith be the angry one? Lance is always so upbeat, laughing off any slight or embarrassment… Except when it’s Keith. Except now.

“That isn’t necessary,” is all Shiro says, at a loss.

“Awesome. Then I don’t think there’s anything else to say. May I be dismissed, _sir_?”

Shiro nods, and Lance turns on his heel sharply to leave the room, stride long and spine straight.

“Daaaaaamn,” Pidge whistles, and Shiro tells her quietly to “hush”.

“Do you think… maybe I should try and talk to him?” Hunk suggests.

“...No,” Keith says quietly, standing up. Finally speaking for the first time since the whole mess started. “Uh- I think… I should. Talk to him. Probably.”

Shiro steps forward to put a hand on his shoulder, searching his expression with a concerned frown. He sighs and says, “If you think that will help. Would you please tell him I’d like to apologize?”

“Yeah. I can do that,” Keith says and follows after Lance. Except Lance is long gone so Keith has to search the castle for him. Keith looks in his room first, then the lounge, then the control room where he sometimes goes to look at the projected stars. It eventually occurs to him to check the hangar and that’s where he finds Lance, curled up against one of Blue’s front paws with his helmet at his feet.

“Hey,” Keith says as he walks up, feeling uncertain of his welcome.

“Hi,” Lance says. Keith sits next to him and presses their shoulders together, pulling off his own helmet.

“I’m sorry I didn’t say anything back there.”

Lance shrugs. “You’re fine, dude. It was awkward as hell. What would you even say? I’m just mad at Pidge and Shiro.”

“Shiro said he wants to apologize,” Keith tells him, and Lance scowls.

“I don’t think I’m ready to hear it right now.”

“Okay.”

They sit in silence for a few minutes and Keith wonders if Lance is communicating with Blue or just enjoys feeling their connection.

“Would it help,” Keith speaks up eventually. “To talk about it? About why they upset you?”

“Are you saying you’re not upset?” Lance asks, looking at him with an expression of disbelief. Keith shrugs.

“I mean, it was embarrassing. And they were being nosy. But I figure friends tend to be both, so I’m not really angry.”

“ _Nosy!_? That’s an understatement!” Lance huffs. “How is it any of their business if we have sex?”

“I’m not saying it is their business, but they are our friends,” Keith says. “Wouldn’t you want to know if Hunk was having sex with someone?”

Lance scrunches his nose with a frown. “Maybe,” he agrees sullenly. “But that’s not all they wanted to know.”

“What else were they asking about?” Keith wonders, because apparently he didn’t follow the conversation completely if there was more going on that he missed.

Lance is silent for a minute, hugging his knees to his chest.

“Pidge asked if we’re together,” Lance whispers. “Shiro wasn’t sure if I could handle no-strings sex.”

“Oh.”

Lance snorts. “Yeah. Oh.” He straightens up to look Keith in the eye. “But I don’t know if I can handle it, and I don’t know if we’re together.”

“Oh,” Keith repeats, nervous and uncertain. He deflects with, “Do… you want to be together? With me?”

“Yes,” Lance says very clearly, very certain. “Do you?”

“Uh...”

When Keith hesitates, Lance’s expression changes – it begins to twist with pain. And maybe Keith doesn’t understand love or relationships very well. But Keith doesn’t want to see that look on Lance’s face, he doesn’t want Lance to feel hurt. He’ll do anything to make it stop. He’ll do anything to make Lance happy again. And isn’t that answer enough? What is this desire to care for him and have him happy if not love? What is this need to be with him if not desire for a relationship?

“Yes,” Keith says. “I do want to be together. With you.”

Lance is surprised, and he studies Keith carefully.

“...Really?” Lance asks. “You can say no. You don’t have to… indulge me or whatever.”

“I wouldn’t do it for that. I told you earlier,” Keith says. “I do what I want and say what I think. And… I want you and I think we should be together.”

Lance’s smile grows slowly alongside a warm feeling in Keith’s chest. Relief? Joy?

“Good,” Lance says, legs unfolding as he turns his body toward Keith. “So we’re… together now. No take backs, Keith, ‘cause you’re not getting rid of me.”

“Why would I want to?”

“I’m sure you’ll have moments,” Lance says, smirking. “You’re too grumpy to put up with me _all_ the time, buggy bear _._ ”

“I’d argue with you, but you’re probably right.” Keith frowns. Lance leans in to leave a lingering kiss on Keith’s pursed lips, and when he pulls back Keith smiles.

“What was that for?”

“Your reward for agreeing with me.” Lance winks. Keith laughs.

“I might actually be tempted to agree with you more often.”

“That’s the spirit!”

“But only tempted,” Keith smirks. “It’s not gonna happen.” Lance gasps.

“You know I’m always right! If you ever disagree with me it’s only because you’re disagreeable.”

“You’re wrong about that.”

Lance frowns. “No kisses for you, asshole.” Keith rolls his eyes.

“Oh no. What will I do without them?”

“Suffer.” Lance sniffs, but despite his efforts he doesn’t really look angry. Keith darts in for a quick peck on the lips and Lance blinks. “What was that for?”

“That was my strategy for doing without them,” Keith says, and Lance gasps.

“You fucking cheater!” Lance crosses his arms and Keith laughs. “I take it back. I don’t want to be with you, Mullet. You suck.”

“Too late,” Keith says. “No take backs, remember?”

“Ugh. Fine.” Lance lets out an exaggerated groan and collapses against Keith’s shoulder. “You’re still a fucking cheater.”

“You’re still a sore loser. Got it.” Keith leans his head against Lance’s and for a moment they sit in silence.

“This is nice,” Lance says.

“Yeah.” Lance rotates his head to place a kiss on Keith’s collarbone and Keith chuckles.

“I should probably say sorry to Shiro for yelling at him,” Lance says.

“No. He was being nosy.”

“...Are you disagreeing with me on purpose?”

“Yes,” Keith says. Lance laughs and reaches for his hand.

They sit for a while, Lance playing with Keith’s fingers.

Eventually Keith says, “So... no one else knows you’re not angry anymore. And there’s still some time before dinner...” This time, Lance picks up on the unspoken suggestion.

“You wanna go have sex?” Lance asks.

“Yeah.”

Lance jumps to his feet, reaching down to pick up his helmet and drag Keith up as well.

“Well what are you waiting for, pudding cup? We’ve got places to be, dicks to suck, orgasms to have.”

“Can you stop with the stupid names?” Keith groans. “I swear they’re getting worse. And why so many about food?”

“I don’t actually know...” Lance says as they leave the hangar, expression exaggerated in thought. “Maybe because you’re so cute, I could just eat you up?”

“Please never say that again.”

“...Or maybe I should say, ‘eat you out’?” Lance corrects, and Keith chokes on startled laughter.

“Is that something you’re into?” Keith asks with a smirk, and enjoys Lance’s blush.

“Um… I don’t know?” Lance squeaks.

“I guess we’ll have to try it sometime.”

“Um!”

Keith snickers. “How is it that you can yell at Shiro about your hard on with a straight face, but if I suggest you eat me out you turn into a mess?”

“It’s different!” Lances flaps his hands around for emphasis.

“Sure.”

“It is!”

“How?”

“The first was completely hypothetical and not so- so… suggestive!” Lance whines, covering his face.

“So if I suggest, completely hypothetically, that you finger yourself while I watch… that’s okay?”

“OH MY GOD!” Lance screeches, still covering his face. Keith carefully guides him away from running into a wall.

“Was it something I said?” Keith asks, raising his eyebrows.

“You know what you did, you shithead!” Lance finally uncovers his face to glare at Keith viciously.

“...You know I’m going to use this against you, right?”

“I hate you. I hate you. I hate you,” Lance chants, face still on fire.

“No you don’t.”

“You’re disagreeing with me, Mullet, and that means no kisses,” Lance frowns.

“As long as you’re still willing to use your mouth for other things, I won’t complain.”

“...I hate you.”

And somehow without either of them noticing the time or distance pass, they arrive in front of their rooms.

“Your place or mine?” Lance asks, apparently not so full of hate that he doesn’t want to have sex.

“Time to dirty your blanket, I think,” Keith says, and follows Lance into his room. “Any special requests this time?”

“Let’s leave the creative decisions up to you,” Lance says. “I just vote we get naked first.”

“All right,” Keith says, reaching for Lance’s belt. “I can get behind that.”

Lance leans forward to give Keith a long, slow kiss while his belt is removed. “For agreeing with me,” he explains.

“No other reason?” Keith asks, beginning to pull off the rest of Lance’s armor.

“Nope! That would be against the rules.”

“I think I can convince you to break the rules,” Keith says. Lance scoffs, reaching to assist in the removal of Keith’s armor as well.

“You can try. Bring it, Mullet.”

They don’t talk as they finish stripping, wiggling out of the tight body suits last and dropping them to the floor until they’re standing naked and close. Keith slips his arms around Lance’s waist and pulls him in tight, lifting his chin for a kiss but Lance doesn’t cooperate – he turns his head so that Keith’s lips land on his cheek.

“Let’s lie on the bed,” Keith says, and guides Lance until they’re lying on their sides, face to face. Keith has a hand on Lance’s chest, softly tracing the lines of his pectoral muscles as they tangle their legs and press their hips forward. Lance places his hand on Keith’s thigh.

“Is that the best you’ve got?” Lance smirks.

“Obviously I’m just getting started,” Keith says, placing a series of wet kisses across his chest and up his neck until he reaches a spot just below Lance’s ear. He breathes out and Lance shudders. “No reason to hide behind a scarf now, right? Everybody knows.”

“Don’t you dare!” Lance protests, but of course Keith does dare and he sucks a mark on Lance’s skin as the other boy sighs in pleasure.

“If anything that works against you,” Lance says. Keith releases his neck with a nip.

“I disagree.”

Lance huffs. “Of course you do.”

Keith presses against Lance’s shoulder until he’s lying on his back and then climbs on top. While Keith’s hand trails up and down the other boy’s body, he leans forward to place another series of wet kisses on Lance’s neck and Lance gasps, groping at Keith’s ass and thighs.

Keith drags his lips up to place a kiss on Lance’s temple, then his cheekbone, then his jaw, then the corner of his mouth. He leaves them hovering an inch from Lance’s lips as he reaches down to take their dicks in hand.

He strokes slowly, enjoying the slide of skin on skin and how it feels to be squeezed together. Lance leaves one hand gripping his ass tightly while the other trails over to his hip, around and up his back, and then along the back of his neck to tangle in his hair.

“That feels good,” Lance admits, closing his eyes.

“That’s the idea,” Keith says.

And he’s not sure if Lance presses up or he presses down, but either way their lips meet in the middle for a kiss. And another. And another. And they just keep kissing as Keith’s hand begins to tug faster with the occasional twist and their hips move in shallow little thrusts, abs and glutes tightening rhythmically.

Lance’s fingers tighten in Keith’s hair as he comes, and Keith bites down on his lips with a hiss as he finishes. They continue kissing even when Keith hand stops moving and he collapses to lie chest to chest in a mess of cum. And for a while that’s all they do until their lips are swollen red and the short stubble on Lance’s face threatens to rub Keith’s skin raw.

“I got you to kiss me,” Keith says when they finally stop kissing.

“Excuse me?” Lance sputters, eyes wide. “You kissed _me_ , because you’re a dirty, rotten cheater.”

“Whatever makes you feel better.” And Keith pecks his frowning lips in one last kiss, definitely cheating this time.

They lie together in their mess for a few minutes until Lance complains that it’s “gross.” Keith sighs and rolls off him. Lance grumbles as he sit ups and they wipe themselves off with his blanket. “We’re probably late for dinner.”

“But no one interrupted us this time,” Keith says. “So I don’t really care.”

Lance stands to fetch his casual clothes as Keith gathers his armor.

“Are you wearing all that to dinner?” Lance asks, pulling on his underwear and pants, then shirt.

“Nope.”

“Just the body suit?” Lance leers. He slips on his shoes.

“Nope.”

Lance shrieks as Keith heads to the door still naked, suit and armor in his arms. “You can’t go _naked_!”

“I’m going to my room,” Keith says, opening the door and stepping out. Luckily, no one is in the hall to see it. “It’s only a few yards away.”

“You are so shameless!” Lance gasps, following Keith into his own room where he drops his armor and pulls on his clothing.

“I guess so,” Keith says. “But no one saw me except you, and we just had sex. So what is there to be ashamed of?”

“The hall is a public space.”

“So is the shower. Sort of.” Keith finishes dressing while Lance thinks about that.

They leave and head toward the dining room. “Sort of,” Lance says finally. “It’s not really private because it’s not my space and other people could be there, but it’s not really public because you have some privacy.”

Keith gives him a thoughtful look. “Does that mean I kiss you now, since you agree with me?”

Lance is startled. “Are you doing that too?”

“It means we’ll kiss more often,” Keith points out. Lance laughs.

“I’m game,” he says, and Keith leans in for a quick kiss. When he pulls away they’re both smiling.

The rest of their walk is surprisingly pleasant considering they are two people who disagree more often than not and enjoy pissing each other off on the regular.

They do in fact arrive very late for dinner. But that is less concerning than the fact that immediately all eyes turn toward them and _stare_ as soon as they arrive. Oh. Right. Last they knew Lance was furious and yelling at Shiro about their sexual activities. Considering they’re coming in late, together, with good moods, swollen lips, and horrible bedhead… It is so fucking obvious that they just had sex.

“Nice hickey,” Pidge says, and Shiro shushes her with a frown. Right. There’s the hickey, too.

“Everybody,” Lance announces, swinging an arm around Keith’s shoulders. “This is my boyfriend, Keith. You may also hear him addressed by names such as snookums, sweetie pie, honeybunch, love muffin, etc. But I’m pretty sure he’d rather you all just call him Keith.”

Dammit, Lance. Every one of them laughs, and Keith rides out the humiliation with a resigned frown.

“I’m going to get you back for that,” Keith mutters, and Lance winks as he guides them toward the table.

“After you, sugar buns,” Lance says, pulling out Keith’s chair. That sets off another round of chuckling, and Keith seats himself with as much dignity as he can muster after being called “sugar buns.”

“I’m sorry about earlier, you two,” Shiro says with a smile. “I didn’t mean to imply that I don’t trust you to handle things on your own. I do trust you. For good reason it seems, because you both look happy.”

“Already forgotten,” Lance says as he sits. “Just please forgive me for suggesting I tell you in any detail about our sexy times.”

Shiro grimaces. “You’re forgiven. Just please... never follow through on that.” He gives Pidge a stern look.

“I’m sorry I asked you about your private business that was totally obvious to anyone with eyes,” Pidge recites. In apology? Close enough.

“Aww, Pidge,” Lance coos. “I could never stay mad at that widdle face.”

Pidge looks ready to stab him with her spork, so Keith cuts in with, “Glad we got all that cleared up! How’s the food tonight?”

“I will accept that really obvious topic change, Keith,” Hunk says, “But only because I’m excited about tonight’s choices. Which you will now have to enjoy lukewarm because you guys spent too long knocking boots.”

“’Knocking boots’?” Allura echoes down the table, “Is that a euphemism for - “

“Yes,” every human present choruses.

Hunk lists off what went into the dishes on the table, and Keith gradually relaxes without everyone’s eyes on him. He eats the food, which really is tasty even lukewarm, and lets the conversations wash over him. At one point Lance pokes Keith in the leg and nods to his plate where he’s artfully made a winky face with the remainder of whatever that orange stuff is.

Keith shakes his head and Lance nods with a wink. With a sigh, Keith takes Lance’s hand to hold it in his under the table, and Lance just fucking _beams_. And that smile… that smile makes all of the stupid shit and embarrassment worth it. Keith would do anything to see that smile again, even tolerate the horrible pet names. Yes he’ll complain and argue there’s no doubt about that, but he’ll put up with it. For Lance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And then they fly off into the metaphorical sunset in their lions, arguing all the while.
> 
> Hope you enjoyed the journey. Thanks for reading! :)


End file.
